The Firstborn
by Fictional Quacker
Summary: One year has passed since the happy end to Elsa and Anna's journey. Arendelle is beginning to blossom once again under the rule of it's queen, but the peace might not be long-lived after a princess of their neighboring nation brings them dreadful news... This is a fan-made continuation of the story where it left off in the end of the movie, the epic adventure has only begun.
1. Anna

**Anna**

It was the beautiful summer morning after the 'Day of Second Spring' – Arendall's very newest annual holiday, in fact this was the first time it was ever celebrated. The castle was decorated in flowers and white and blue glitter. Needless to say, the glitter was unplanned but a certain princess insisted they use glitter to represent the ice and snow that had melted. In fact the entire holiday was her idea, that they should celebrate Elsa's journey and how she discovered the key to controlling her powers, thus becoming the greatest, most epic asset Arendall had ever possessed. Also magic is sooo cool!

Anna woke up early this morning, it was slow, messy and painful especially after a full, long night of partying but she did it none the less. For once she was not completely stricken by amnesia and remembered why she was up. No wonder, really, she had been thinking about this day for weeks. Her handmaiden put her hair up in a simple up-do with a braid coming out of the back of it, like the tongue out of a dog's mouth. She slipped into a beautiful dress of green and gold and a pair of leather boots before running down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Good morning, princess Anna!" The staff greeted her as usual. These days they had plenty of staff tending to their needs as well as maintaining the castle, all to Anna's great delight since now she always had someone around to talk to.  
"Good morning, guys! I'm so hungry I could eat a reindeer." She said and eyed the bread one of the chefs where just taking out of the oven. Housewife Martella – the head of the royal kitchen and loyal servant to the royal family since 32 years, lifted her gaze off the great slab of meat she was spicing to give Anna an amused look.

"My princess, you do know we could just serve you your breakfast in your chambers, or at least in the dining hall. There ain't no need fo you to come here to eat, risking to soil your dress at that." Martella said. "It's not exactly considered proper to dine among the kitchen peasants."  
"Oh, but I like eating here! There's always so much happening here, and I like you people too." Anna replied with a smile. Martella shook her head.  
"It ain't proper I tell you, but for this day I'll surrender. Better eat up your meal quick enough, m'lord Kristoff is leaving in less than an hour, is he not?"  
"It's so weird when you call Kristoff 'm'lord', Martella." Anna replied, moving a bit uncomfortably in her chair.  
"Well weird or not he practically is a lord now so it's m'lord we gon call him. Though he ain't ever acting nore dressing like one, that's for certain…" Martella said, stern but not ill-meaning whilst she served Anna cold blueberry soup, a basket of freshly baked bread, butter, cheese, tea and a cinnamon roll for her to break her fast on. Anna ate with great apatite as always, and even had enough room left to nom on an apple on her way out.

Today really was going to be a busy day, there was a group of representatives from their neighboring country, Demaria, coming to the castle to meet with Elsa and her counsil. Anna couldn't really remember what they wanted, she didn't listen too closely when Elsa told her about it. Elsa was the one who handled all the political stuff and Anna had never been all that interested in all the constant meetings and negotiations anyway.

More importantly, today was the day Kristoff was going to leave her. Not forever, just for a few days actually, but she had gotten so used to seeing him every day and she was really going to miss him. They had taken Elsa's advice to take it slowly and things were really working out for them. They still weren't even engaged, though Anna wished they were, but they really had a lot of fun together. Man, his going out on this stupid ice-expedition thing was going to suck.

She went out the castle main door. Elsa, Ulf, Sven, Olaf, Kristoff and his whole expedition team of four other men were standing outside. Kristoff was smiling and talking to the team cheerfully, and Anna felt a little bad about not wanting him to go. Ice was his life after all, and his ice business blooming had only made his passion burn even more intense than before. She sighed and decided to be happy for him, she was still going to miss him a lot though. Elsa was the first one to notice she was there.

"Good morning, Anna." She greeted her sister with that gentle and graceful tone of hers. Elsa was always so cool and queen-like, Anna really admired her for that.  
"Good morning! Are you all ready to leave?" Anna replied with the best smile she could muster. Kristoff turned to her, him with a real smile on his lips.  
"Yeah! I just wanted to say goodbye to you before going." He walked up to her and hugged her. "Take care of Olaf, and yourself." She dug her fingers into his back and pressed her face against his shoulder.  
"You too, Kristoff."

Kristoff and the team rode out the castle gates, Kristoff naturally riding Sven, waving back at them. Elsa turned her gaze to Anna before they had even gotten out of sight.  
"Anna, are you sure you're alright like this? If you'd like you could be with me today, you're always welcome to attend political meetings." She asked with concern, but Anna just shook her head.  
"Thanks Elsa, but I think I'd rather just go to the forest or something." Elsa regarded her response for a second before replying.  
"Ulf, go with Anna to the orphanage. I believe they have not had the play-day we promised them for this week yet?"  
"No, You Grace, they have not." Ulf, their old butler, answered with a smile. Anna laughed.  
"Elsa, you're the best sister ever!" She shouted and wrapped her arms around her. "Thank you!"  
"Go, enjoy yourself okay." Elsa smiled back and Anna ran out the gate, waving back and with poor old Ulf chasing after her.

She felt much better now, with her sweet sister Elsa around Kristoff's whole ice-expedition thing might not suck too badly after all.


	2. Elsa

**Elsa**

Elsa had sent off Anna to the orphanage to cheer her up, but as she was changing for court she honestly felt that she was in need for some cheering up herself. Today's negotiations could possibly be very long lasting, and she had already offered their visitors stay in the castle, and the entire western part of the main building as well as the dining hall and room of court had been prepared to host their guests and their every need. She had met the king and queen of Damaria as a little girl, but she hardly remembered any of it. This was a very serious occasion, and Elsa had still to get fully accustomed to the queenly role. There were so many things she had yet to learn, and she obviously had no hope of her mother guiding her and teaching her the ways of a queen worthy of Arendelle's throne.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Not bad – she had picked out a new dress in a deep, light blue color, with elegant embroidery of frost flakes in silver thread. It had been a gift from the wealthiest merchant in Arendelle – a fat, happy man with a sense of humor, a late wife and fifteen children to care for, yet he still somehow managed to maintain his business and attend to every single festivity held in the royal castle. She smiled at her reflection and gave her hair one last critical glace. She still liked to keep her hair in a thick braid and her bangs let loose in all their glory, the maids had always had to struggle to pin the long parts down neatly. She felt much more confident with her hair when she just let it go, so that's what she did today. She needed all the courage she could get.  
"This shall have to do." She said and slipped into a pair of decorated heels before leaving the room to go make her way to the harbor and welcome their guests.

The royal carriage and the two white horses pulling it carried her down the road safely, while she made sure to wave and smile at all of her people looking on the way there. She arrived just in time, the great royal cruise ship of Damaria was just coming into port when the carriage stopped by the docks. Elsa took a deep breath and exited the carriage.

A lot of civilians had come to watch the ship make port, it was not every day that they got to see royal foreigners. They cheered when they saw their queen step out of her carriage and she smiled brightly at them in return, waving and laughing. Finally the crew of the great ship finished attaching to the dock and lowered the bridge to allow their most valuable cargo to gracefully walk off the ship. Elsa waited for them to approach her. _But wait… Where are the rest of the family?_

"Welcome to Arendelle, Your Grace." Elsa greeted the newcomer, surprisingly enough there was only one person getting off the ship – a slim and tanned young woman with black hair and brown eyes in a bright orange and yellow dress. Elsa felt something stir inside her, the crown princess of Damaria certainly wasn't unpleasant to look at.  
"Thank you, Queen Elsa. I hope we did not keep you waiting for us?" The young woman said with a warm voice and took Elsa's hand. The touch was very warm, like the princess had a high fever, and it made whatever stirred inside her grow more intense.

"Not at all, I just arrived here myself. Forgive me, we have not met before, I take it you must be the crown princess?" Elsa said, mostly to confirm it to herself.  
"Yes, but please feel free to simply calling me Ester." Ester said with a smile so bright and warm Elsa thought she might actually catch on fire, an impression only reinforced by the bright flame-color of the princess' dress.

The two royal ladies took the carriage up to the castle and let the crew of the ship handle the luggage.

"You must be tired after your journey, if you would like to rest we have prepared quarters for you and your servants." Elsa offered upon their arrival. Ester looked up at the castle.  
"Thank you but no, I would actually like to get right down to negotiations if you don't mind." She replied simply. Elsa was a bit surprised, but couldn't say she minded either. Ester turned to her with a doubtlessly saddened look on her face.  
"Our business is more urgent than we had hoped."

Elsa escorted her into the counsil chamber and ordered a serving maid to summon the counsil right away... And to bring them some tea and sweets. The food was quicker to arrive than the counsilors.

"Ooooh chocolate cakes!" Ester sighed and grabbed one off the large silver plate of sweets and baked goods stacked on top of it. "I love chocolate so much it could be considered sinful." She giggled and took a big bite.  
"I'm not one to blame you, me and my sister have always been crazy for chocolate ourselves." Elsa snickered and dug in on the brown pieces of heaven.  
"I have to say you're a lot different from what I have heard." Ester said, sipping her tea.  
"Oh? Different how?" Elsa asked curiously.  
"Well you're the queen of ice aren't you?"

Elsa nearly choked on her own spit. _What?! How does she know?  
_"Oh… Uhm…"  
"When you hear news like how you froze over your entire country and more…"  
"Wait, more…?" Elsa couldn't believe this. A whole year had passed and she only hears of this now? She is the queen for heaven's sake! How on earth could she always be so uninformed when it came to things that concerned her on such a personal level?  
"Why yes, the ice even reached the outskirts of our capitol Harburg, not to mention the western coast of Svea which was entirely frozen shut. The news spread like wildfire." Ester's look was as surprised as Elsa felt. Was Elsa really the only person uninformed of this? Did Anna know? Ester shifted in her seat.

"Well, when you hear of someone who has frozen the land you kind of expect her to be a villain, you know?" Ester continued, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. Elsa felt her heart drop in her chest. "Thing is you're quite the contrary of what I expected. You've been very pleasant, polite and graceful and beau- beautiful." Ester finished, cleared her throat and continued.

"There is actually something I need to tell you, about the magic. I need to tell you in private and this is as good a time as any."  
Elsa's eyes met Ester's and for a moment the room was completely silent.  
"You're… You're not alone."

_What._

"I have powers too. A… storm inside me."

_What?_

"It's not a winter storm like yours… It's kind of… Worse."

_Wait, wait, wait… What?_

"I… I burn stuff."  
"What." Elsa finally managed to get her voice to function again, but all she could do with it was trying to express her utter confusion and surprise.  
"I'm serious, I have a firestorm inside of me, just like you have your ice and snow – I have fire and lava. My hair is proof of it too, my entire family is blonde or red haired and still I was born with hair as black as coal." Ester glanced at one of the big candles placed about the room. She lifted her hand, made a small motion with her finger and a beam of light shot from it, igniting the wick.  
"Wow." Elsa tried to shake off the surprise and regain her grace and dignity, which was rather futile since she in her attempt literally shook her head intensively. Then she felt relief. She had wondered if there was anyone else like her, someone with the same problems as she, and now she finally got to meet someone she could relate to.

"I can't believe it, you have it too?" Elsa finally gasped. Ester giggled.  
"Yep. That's one of two reasons why I needed to come see you."  
"What's the other reason?" Elsa asked, just as the door opened and three of her four counsilors entered the room. They all greeted them and introduced themselves to Ester politely and sat down on Elsa's side of the table. Ester had that sad look on her again, and Elsa found herself fighting the sudden urge to touch her and try to comfort the princess. Ester finally straightened herself and faced Elsa and the three counsilors by her side. Her brown eyes stared right into Elsa's and for a second she thought she might drown in those deep, big chocolate-colored pools of her face. Ester inhaled deeply.

"We need your help. As you know, we are at a full-scaled war with Svea, and the situation is utterly against our favor. They have kidnapped the entire royal family, me being the only exception. As the crown princess, I am begging you on the behalf of the entire nation of Damaria to join your ranks to our cause… And as a woman, I am begging you to help me save my family from certain death."


	3. Kristoff

**Kristoff**

This was life. The wind blew hard and cold against his face, he had Sven by his side, a trusty old ice pick in his hand and over five feet of solid ice under his feet. Everything felt pretty darn great right now… Except for the empty pit in his chest.

He missed it so much. He missed Arendelle with its freshly baked bread and hot meals every day – out here they lived on mostly frozen jerky and carrots or boiled potatoes, he missed the castle with all its big halls and endless potential, he missed his house with the big stable outside the castle walls and he even missed Olaf and Elsa and the conversations they used to have, but more than anything else he missed his princess Anna. He had gotten so used to seeing her every day, going on stupid little adventures and playing with the orphans in the orphanage once a week. He missed her body too, holding her close and drowning in the scent of her hair or planting kisses every square inch of her face and neck when they were alone.

Sven noticed his glum look and puffed at his arm. Kristoff took a carrot out of his sleeve and gave the reindeer a bite.  
"You're right Sven, we'll be back to them in no-time. Let's carve ourselves some ice!" He ate the rest of the carrot himself and got to work at the thick ice. Good ice like this could only be found up here at the very top of the mountains during summer, and when he heard of this small frozen lake from a fellow ice-worker he just had to come see it for himself and sure enough – it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever laid eyes on. The mountain tops stood clear white against the bright blue sky, the snow still thick in the middle of summer. The wind was strong up here but the air was clear and fresh and it was absolutely freezing. The four others were hard at work, three of them still working the ice while Thom – a big man with muscle so big you'd think he was born half bull and dark, wild hair, was preparing one of their rare hot and cooked meals. Finding dry firewood and actually getting a fire going was difficult up here after all. The smell of the soup and fried bacon he was cooking made all their mouths water, and Kristoff's stomach made a loud grumbling noise.

He leaned over to heave the block of ice he had freed from the lake up on top of the surface, when suddenly he was jumped from behind and he felt a strong pair of gloved hands lock his own before tying them together with a rough piece of rope behind his back. He tried to yell out but when he looked up he noticed that it was already too late – the others had already been attacked and tied themselves. Only Thom was managing to put up somewhat of a fight, he had torn the first rope apart with his massive arms but now he had to deal with three large men working together to knock him down. Something hard hit Kristoff hard in the back of his head and everything went black.

* * *

"Psst, Kristoff! Ey, you wakin' up buddy?"  
He opened his eyes reluctantly. His head hurt terribly and the ropes around his wrists had given him bruises that ached when he tried to move his hands. He blinked a few times while he took in the surroundings. He and his team were in a small room, all of them tied up. Thom was sobbing in the corner furthest from the door and from the looks of it Bubby Bloomer, his adoptive younger brother not even half his size was doing all he could to soothe the big man. Ingvar, the oldest of them with 54 years and an unpleasant amount of white hair on his back, was rubbing his feet together in the opposite corner. The one who woke Kristoff was John, a man in his twenties with both compassion, humor and a serious temper, especially if he had been drinking. He was very skilled with ice, pick and axe and never complained about anything, because he hated it when people complained for no reason himself.

Kristoff wondered if he had gotten a wound on his head from the blow that knocked him out, but with his hands tied he could not reach the painful area to examine it. Instead he gave the ropes holding him as good and long a tug as he could. The pain made his eyes tear up but he pressed his lips together and kept trying to loosen the knots all the same. Ingvar gave him a long, cold stare from across the room.

"Pull and wiggle all you like, child. Them ropes won't be budgin' no time soon." He said. Kristoff ignored him at first but he soon realized the old man was right. The more he pulled the tighter the grip around his wrists seemed to become. He sighed, annoyed over this unpleasant development.  
"Come on, old man. Couldn't you at least try to be positive for once?" He asked.  
"Ain't no matter of positive or negative. I know a thing or two 'bout knots and this is one o' 'em that are made to make struggle futile." Ingvar spat on the floor. Kristoff tried to come up with some clever response but he had yet to form the sentence in his head when the door of the room unlocked and opened.

The sudden light stung all four pair of eyes after being kept for hours inside their dark confinement. A large man with a big black beard and the most majestic chin Kristoff had ever laid eyes on walked inside, balancing five plates of hot beans on his plump arms. He placed them carefully on the floor in the middle of the room, and Kristoff felt his mouth water at the sight and scent of hot food.  
"Yah'll will be spendin' the next couple o' days in here. Better eat up and make yourselves comfortable, eh?" The big man said with what looked like a smirk. It was rather hard to see his mouth under all that beard.

"Why are you doing this to us? Where are we?" John demanded. Their captor turned his eyes to John.  
"Smelly lad over there, we kno' who he is. Spotted you lot comin' up the mountain tops and followed you. This is our territory, no royal lover boy's got any business up here 'less he plans to give us modest robber folk a good opportunity to claim ransom." Now the man was smiling, and without a doubt it was not a kind grin on his lips. Kristoff bit his lip in frustration. This was no good. If they sent a messenger to the city with a ransom for him Anna would come rushing the second she heard he was in trouble. At the very least he hoped that she would have enough sense to bring an escort of soldiers and pay the ransom peacefully, but knowing her she might just storm out all on her own to come save him herself. Either way, perhaps there was still some hope of him convincing the robbers to not send any message in the first place. After all he was just a low-born ice worker, not even a real member of the royal family… The last thought caused a painful throb to go through his heart and he wanted to slap himself. No, this was not the time to be sulking.

"Ransom? What makes you think you'll get a ransom for us? We're just simple ice workers." Ingvar snorted and spat.  
"Oh yeah? It ain't no secret this one's the princess Anna's." The man said and shoved one of his big, unwashed fingers up Kristoff's face. "The entire kingdom knows 'bout her and her ice workin' prince charmin'."  
"But, see that isn't me." The lie slipped out of his mouth smoothly. Finally an opening he might be able to grasp. "I've only ever seen the princess from a distance. Besides I… I already have a wife." The man raised the one solid eyebrow that reached all the way across his forehead into a somewhat amusing-looking shape. Like a black, hairy rainbow.

"A wife, you say? What's her name?"  
"An… Annabelle. Yes, Annabelle. Ahaha, that's probably why you think I'm the princess's, Annabelle and Anna are pretty similar names! Easy to get mixed up!" Kristoff tried his best to make sure his face would not reveal the lie, but it was hard not to tense up knowing that it would only take the big man half a second to clench the hand he had pressed against his nose into a fist, and then slam said fist into Kristoff's face. The big man thought for a few seconds, then pulled his hand away from Kristoff's face, leaving it unharmed.  
"Well… Be it true or false, don't think I'll take your word for it, blondie." He said, turned around and stomped out of the room, shutting and locking the heavy door behind him.

Kristoff took a deep breath. He had done everything he could for now. He remembered the cooked beans and bounced over to the plates on his bottom. He slid a plate to each of his fellow captives and kept one for himself. Now, all he had to do was figure out how to get the beans into his stomach with this limited use of his hands. He was not completely compelled to follow Thom's example and shove his face down against the plate and scoop the food up with his mouth but need has no law, especially not that of the stomach.

* * *

This sucked. This situation as a whole really sucked troll-balls. Judging by the changes of the little light coming out the curtained window placed right underneath the ceiling Kristoff guessed about a day had passed, as the light was orange like when the sun sets... Or rises. He had already had to empty his bladder twice in an already overflowing bucket. He could live with the stench of it earlier, but then their dear Thom had run out of stamina and had to relieve his colon of the portions of beans and grain right in front of his friends. All five of them now sat huddled up in the opposite corner, desperately trying to get as far away from the source of stink as they possibly could.

Kristoff had tried to get some sleep but as soon as he closed his eyes the panic crept up on him: where on earth was Sven? He had left the reindeer in the forest, about ten minutes away from the lake where they worked. There was no helping it, that far up it was tricky to find vegetation that Sven could eat and the trees had the most moss there. If the robbers had found him, Sven would be captured or hunted himself, and Kristoff did not even want to think about what they might do to the poor beast once they got a hold of him. On top of that, he prayed that Anna would never hear from the robbers, and thought maybe he could escape, find Sven and then head down the mountain in time… But then again he could not just leave his crew up here, they would have to all escape together. Furthermore…

Suddenly, Ingvar stood up and attached the piece of rope that had been around his wrists to his belt. The four others stared at him, in total awe. The old man turned around and started untying John with a wide grin.  
"I told you, children. I kno' a thing or two 'bout 'em knots."


End file.
